Our theme for Advent this year was "Jesus Born for Us." On the surface it doesn't seem like much of a theme, after all it's pretty obvious that Jesus was born for us, isn't it? Who else would He have been born for? What other reason would He have been born if not to aid us? On the other hand, how well do people — how well do we — understand what it means that Jesus was born for us? Do you give it much thought? Or is it something that you've just taken for granted?
It's an incredibly amazing thing that Jesus would be born for us. He is the King of all creation. He is far above us in His reign of glory and power. He is holy and surrounds Himself with perfect holiness. We had no place in His kingdom and no right to be in His presence. We were helpless and hopeless, entirely unable to do anything for ourselves let alone do something for God that would warrant His favor. In our sin we were completely and absolutely separated from Him, from His love, from His mercy. It was our pathetic condition that moved God to demonstrate His compassion in love by doing the unthinkable: be born for us.
Jesus is God born in human flesh, veiled by skin and bones so that He could dwell with unholy people. Born fully human so that He could experience life just as we experience it with all of its ups and downs, joys and sorrows, satisfactions and disappointments. But for what purpose did Jesus lower Himself from His majesty and glory to be born for us? Why did He endure all the terrible things that He did — starting with the humiliation of His birth?
Tonight we once again experience the answer to these questions. As we join the shepherds in the darkness of the fields, we are reminded that once the darkness that covered them covered us as well. In that darkness heaven was closed to everyone who had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God — closed to us, closed to you. But Christ was born into the world to open heaven. His light pierced our darkness just as the sky filled with the brightness of God's glory before the shepherds. The good news that the Savior is born was proclaimed by the angel chorus. Born to open heaven for the world, for us, for you.
